Fear
by morph
Summary: War of the Worlds musical cross over. The TARDIS picks up a strange signal... Spoilers for 'Evolution of the Daleks' and War of the Worlds. TARDIS PoV. Part of my TARDIS 100 series. One shot.


AN/ I do not own Doctor Who or War of the Worlds. Any and all paraphrasing from Jeff Wayne's WotW musical doesn't belong to me either. I'm not making any money from this whatsoever. This is in the TRADIS' PoV and is a part of my TARDIS 100 series. Dedicated to Davide, who got me onto War of the Worlds in the first place. If anyone out there is familiar with the musical, see how many references to the songs and the narration I make.

* * *

"Where are we?" Martha asked. Her voice was slightly stuffy due to blocked nasal passages.

My Doctor flicked three switches in a row on my console. "We are in orbit around the Moon," he answered.

"Which moon? Earth's moon?"

"Yep. Becoming a bit of a habit for us to be hanging out here together." The Doctor gave her a grin and a little wink.

I saw the familiar flash of 'what if?' and 'if only' thoughts in Martha's head, but she pushed them aside. "So, why are we here then? What year is it?"

"It's the last years of the 19th Century, August 12th, and we're only really here to take a little break. The TARDIS really wants her Marino Auxlimiter fixed. You can go do whatever you want." He frowned slightly at her. "Go rest. You look and sound like you may have a cold coming on."

As if on cue, Martha sneezed. She felt around in her pockets for a tissue and blew her nose. "How'd you know that?"

He just gave a little smile and a shrug. "Bless you… and it's cos I'm a Doctor, of course. There are tea bags in the kitchen if you want to make yourself a cuppa."

As the Doctor spoke, I picked up a strange signal. I sent an alarm to the Doctor and a light flashed on my computer screen. The Doctor turned to look at it. "Hello… what's this?" he wondered. Martha took a step closer to him, curious and sniffling a little. The Doctor repeated his question to me mentally. _"What have you picked up?"_

"_It's aggressive," _I told him.

"_What? What is?"_

"_The signal. It's the Martians."_

"_The what? Don't be daft."_

"_When am I ever daft? Look for yourself."_

"Doctor, what is it?" Martha inquired.

"The TARDIS has picked up a signal. It seems to be coming from…" he double-checked the readings I was giving him, popping on his glasses. "Coming from Mars, but that's impossible. The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one," he said.

"That's not impossible then. There's still a chance," Martha pointed out.

"Yeah…" the Doctor admitted, distracted. "It's coming from something that may or may not be coming from Mars, but what I _do_ know is that whatever it is that's making this signal is headed towards Earth, and that's bad."

"Why? Is it the Daleks?" I saw the memories of the Cult of Skaro in Martha's mind - the Empire State Building and the humanoid Dalek Sec.

"No, not eh Daleks, but just as aggressive." The Doctor wasn't sure just how relieved he should be. He took off his glasses and flicked a switch under the screen. I broadcasted the alien signal throughout the room, accompanied by an image on the computer monitor. It consisted of two high pitched pulses, followed by a lower pitched one. Three matching green soundwave circles pulsed on the screen, like pond ripples. The pulses repeated themselves, this time inter-cut with a buzzing in four tones that showed as a blue squiggle on the screen. The entire signal repeated itself again, ringing out like the howl of a hunting wolf. The tiny hairs on the back of Martha's neck rose and the Doctor clenched his jaw. He recognised that signal. I knew it too.

Martha wiped her nose with the tissue. She tried not to sound afraid when she spoke. "And they're not friendly, yeah?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No, they're not."

"Where are they coming from, if not from Mars?"

"Oh, they're coming from Mars. Must have had a base there or something." The Doctor looked and sounded like he'd never denied it. I poked his mind like a telepathic prod in the ribs.

Martha gave him a look. "_You _said 'the chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one.'"

"And still they come." The Doctor sighed. His mind was ticking away with super-human strength.

"So what do we do?" Martha asked. "You said they're aggressive. We can't let them come to Earth."

"No, we can't let them come to Earth," the Doctor agreed. He was picturing what they'd do to that blue and green planet we were so very fond of. "In this day and age down there, no one would have believed…" his mind switched gears. "The Martians' minds, immeasurably superior to yours, have probably regarded Earth with envious eyes for a long time and slowly and surely, they drew their plans against you." The Doctor sighed angrily, shaking his head. "They're only coming to destroy, to make Earth their own after exhausting their own resources. They'd wipe out whole populations with their giant, metal, walking, tripod Fighting Machines and devastating Heat Rays." His fingers flew over the keys, working out calculations, typing and sending a message. It soon reached the Martians, and their scathing reply of a refusal to co-operate with us sealed their fate. The Doctor's mind and mine become more and more disturbed. Martha's thoughts followed suit as the Doctor painted the grim picture for her with his words.

"According to the TARDIS, they're going to land just outside of London. Horsell Common, to be exact." The Doctor sighed. "They'll cause a stampede when they reach London. Just imagine, six million people, unarmed and unprovisioned, driving headlong. It would be the beginning of the rout of civilisation, the massacre of mankind." He paused and thought about what he'd just said. "Well… kinda."

The Doctor met Martha's eyes. "Then they'd cover the Earth with the Red Weed from their home world. Wherever there's a stream, the Red Weed will cling and grow with frightening voraciousness, its claw-like fronds choking the movement of the water. And then it will begin to creep, like a slimy red animal, across the land, covering field and ditch and tree and hedgerow with living scarlet feelers - crawling, crawling. I've seen it before, on another planet."

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair and down his face. "Eventually, they'll begin to feed," he continued to explain. "They'll build a machine that will drain the fresh living blood of men and women and will inject it into their own veins." His mind still ticking away, going through all the remaining possibilities. We were all equally horrified by what these aliens could do. "Oh no, Nathaniel," the Doctor murmured.

Martha blinked in confusion at his last comment, her blood already chilled by this new threat to her home world. "What?"

"See, the thing is," the Doctor continued, bowling over Martha's query, "we just so happen to be in a position to intercept them." He leant forward, deep brown eyes scanning every readout I gave him. "We are orbiting the moon, and by luck the orbits are all aligned so that the moon is directly between the Earth and Mars and the Martians. We're right in their path. That's why the TARDIS picked up their signal."

"Well, is there any way we could send a signal out to them? Tell them to keep away from Earth?" Martha sat down on the seat beside my console. She coughed a little. I could easily tell that she was in no fit shape to run as her body battled the virus inside her.

The Doctor and I had already considered, attempted, and dismissed the option of a warning. "I _could_, but they'd just ignore it. In fact, the TARDIS has already tried that, and they've sent back a rather nasty reply insulting the sexual preferences of her mother. I'm afraid…" he sighed, not wanting to take this road, but knowing it was the only way. "I'm going to have to kill them before they reach Earth."

I hugged his mind, wishing I could hug his body.

Martha coughed a little more. I watched the Doctor make a mental note to get her some lozenges. "Can't the humans defend themselves?" she asked.

"Oh sure, they can try. They have ironclads and cannons, but that's just bows and arrows against the lightning. A few of the Martians may fall, but Earth technology isn't advanced enough yet to fight and _win_ against them."

"Does the TARDIS have any weapons, then?"

"Nope, but you do, Martha Jones."

Her expression turned to confusion once again. "What?"

"Your cold, your germs. They're just what we need." He bounded over to her with a smile. "You see, they have no immunity to Earth germs and viruses whatsoever. They can be slain by the humblest things upon the earth, or in the TARDIS in this case - bacteria, minute, invisible bacteria. Directly, the invaders would arrive and drink and feed, but our microscopic allies will attack them. From that moment, they are doomed. They'd all die within a few weeks. There'd be a dead London, but the spirit of man could start all over again. But we'd save Earth the trouble, and quite a lot of human lives, if we take them out now using the germs from your cold."

Thinking ahead, I ejected a small, metal cylinder from a compartment on my console. Martha gave a nod. Anything to help save her planet from that awful fate. "Let's do it then. What do I have to do?"

The Doctor picked the cylinder up and handed it to Martha. "All you have to do is sneeze into this tube and we'll send your germs over to them," he told her.

Martha sniffled again and looked down at the cylinder in her hands. She unscrewed the top and looked inside. I had made sure that it was warm and wet in there, the perfect breeding place for bacteria. It was designed so that they'd survive their brief trip through space to meet the Martians. "That's all I have to do to save Earth? Sneeze into a metal tube?"

The Doctor put his hands into the pockets of his blue suit jacket. "Yep! Though… the sooner you do it the better, not that I'm trying to pressure you or anything, oh no, oh no, not me."

"Never had to sneeze on demand before." Martha smiled faintly.

"You want to inhale some pepper or something?"

She sniffled again. "No… I think I've got one coming…" Sure enough, she sneezed twice, managing to catch both into the metal tube.

The Doctor grinned and took it from her, sealing the lid on tightly. "Gesundheit!"

Martha blew her nose. "Thanks."

"Saved the world with two sneezes. Not even I could manage that." The Doctor tossed the cylinder into the air and caught it. "Now, to send this off to the Martians." He scurried over to another part of my controls and slid the tube into a slot.

"_Ready?" _he asked me.

"_Yes," _I replied.

"_Aim."_

"_Target locked on."_

"_Fire." _The Doctor hit a button and I jettisoned the cylinder towards the invaders. They never knew what hit them. The Doctor watched my screen as I showed him to progress of the tube. "Come on, Thunder Child!"

Martha didn't even bother asking what he was on about this time.

The Doctor turned and sent another smile towards his companion. "There. All done."

"I wish it were always that easy," she said.

"Nah! Where's the fun in that?"

Martha smiled, knowing he was right.

I made a sound equivalent of clearing my throat. Now that the danger had passed, there with other issues that still needed to be addressed. _"Doctor? My Marino Auxlimiter?"_

"_Oh yes! Sorry, Old Girl. I'll get right on it."_

"Alright," he said out loud. "Go treat yourself to a nice, warm bath and a cup of tea. You've earned it, Martha."

Martha got to her feet. She was already thinking of heading that way anyways. "Alright. I'll see you in a little while then." She smiled slightly and headed off. I shifted my corridors to give her and easier trip.

I saw an errant thought cross the Doctor's mind. Perhaps the Martians could learn from this and adapt, maybe try to attack Earth again. Maybe Earth's future belonged to the Martians…? He shook his head to clear those thoughts away. If that did happen, we'd deal with it later. He took out his sonic screwdriver and set to work fixing me. I soon lapsed into a contented fit of purring that made him smile.


End file.
